“Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.” – John Erskine
Hello all
As London opens up after lockdown, like a lot of you I just want to go out and do stuff, I got a notice of a new exhibition at the Museum of London called Dub London: Bassline of a City, this is a free event, and it has a bespoke record shop created with Papa Face of Dub Vendor Reggae Specialist with a selection of 150 vinyl records available to listen to, so I could be in there a while.
“That idea of belonging, of dub as a joyful refuge, is the overriding impression left by this new (albeit Covid-delayed) exhibition at the Museum of London. It delves into the societal impact of the music and the culture, rather than poring over the finer stylistic details of the genre.”
My music listening this week started with a chilled out Sunday afternoon and a new artist, Lydia Luce – The Tides, her simple form of music really suited the mood at the time.
Most of the week was spent listening to George Michael – Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, this album has got better as I have aged, especially some of the slower songs. While on the subject of George Michael, Paul McGroarty told me a story, “when Wham was playing Ashtons about to release of young guns, Tony Q and I got on stage and started dancing alongside George Michael and Andrew Ridgely before we were interrupted and removed” young guns ah.
Midweek, I the call from my sister, and WAY HAY I am going to see the Specials in September, can’t wait. My sister is always coming with me in 2 weeks time to go and see 2 Tone: Lives & Legacies exhibition at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry.
Towards the end of the week, I started listening to an album I have had for years but never listened to it in full, Damien Rice – O, it was just a lovely experience to listen to going to work.
John Murphy is doing a 60-mile dog walk fundraiser for Cancer Research UK, its a good cause and together we will beat cancer. You can donate here.
Saturday morning ritual of reading others blogs continued with a black coffee. This week I read about Crowded House, a great post from Loving the music, about a great band. You can read more here Mini-Feature – Crowded House
I then delve into bestmusicofalltime archive and found this little nugget, about 24 Carat Black.
I spent Saturday afternoon listening to Reggae and reminiscing about my school days, and the shock results of my years RE exam, which has brought great amusement in my year group, you can read about it in A Frankie View – Reggae Vibe 4.
I also decide to clean some records on Saturday, and while they were drying, I took my mother in law to the hairdressers, the in-car music this week was Stereo MC’s – Connected, the Tom Jones loving critic to my surprise didn’t mind The Stereo MC’s.
In between drop my mother in law off and picking her up, I quickly popped into Sounds of the Suburbs record store, and picked up a nice copy of Janet Kay – Capricorn Woman on vinyl, also in the post came Groundation – Hebron Gate on CD, so lots of new reggae to look forward to.
Well with all the jobs done, I had a little bit of time to myself, so decided to listen to the newly cleaned Madness – One Step Beyond, an album I first brought back in 1080, as a 13-year-old when all this music madness started. My old copy was a bit beaten up, so I did pick up a new copy from Tony at Sounds of the Suburbs record, its Cherry Red vinyl, limited edition of 500 copies, and apparently, it was remastered For vinyl From The Original Tapes. Now I have not listened to this album for a long time, but this copy does sound good.
I shared my thoughts on Madness – One Step Beyond to my year Facebook group, which has brought up some debut about 2-tone, and the importance of punk and reggae to Two-tone. I do want to do a post on this, but first of I want to share my thoughts on The Beat – I Just Can’t Stop It and The Selecter – Too Much Pressure, two more albums I brought when only 13-14.
I also sat through Eurovision song contest, where the Cyprus song was a rip of Lady Gaga, Israel, just made my ears bleed, once I heard the UK song, I predicted that they will come last, Tony Creamer message me to tell me the Spain song was shit, felt like I had just dropped an acid tab after watching the German song, the story behind the Bulgaria song nearly made me cry, I inform Lithuania with the following, You be dancing alone if you dropped a tune like that Lithuania in disco I go to, next I was watching a Scary Ukraine woman on my TV, and feared for Norway, that he didn’t start swearing as he suffers from Tourette. Only in Eurovision, can’t wait to next year to see if my pain threshold will hold out again.
Well got to go, got some chicken that needs marinating, and potatoes that need peeling, for my fluffy garlic & herb mash.
Stay safe all, and have a good week.
Oh, I also listened to the below, on my way to work.
I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.
